ANNUAL REPORT R United States Postal Inspection Service Annual report ACCOUNTABILITY • INTEGRITY • RESPECT • EXCELLENCE • RESPECT • INTEGRITY ACCOUNTABILITY 2019 2 | U.S. POSTAL INSPECTION SERVICE Table of Contents 4 WHO WE ARE 6 MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF 8 MEET OUR LEADERS 10 FIGHTING MAIL FRAUD 12 PROTECTING POSTAL CUSTOMERS 14 ASSISTING CRIME VICTIMS 16 ADMINISTERING ASSET FORFEITURE 18 TARGETING THEFT 20 INTERCEPTING DANGEROUS MAIL 22 IMPEDING NARCOTICS TRAFFICKING 24 HALTING CHILD EXPLOITATION USPIS.GOV USPIS.GOV 26 KEEPING EMPLOYEES SAFE & SECURE 28 DEPLOYING SECURITY 30 SAFEGUARDING REVENUE & ASSETS 32 WORKING GLOBALLY 34 FORENSIC EXAMINATION 36 INVESTIGATING CYBER THREATS 38 PREPARING OUR WORKFORCE 40 CONNECTING WITH CUSTOMERS 42 INVESTIGATIVE STATISTICS ANNUAL REPORT 2019 | 3 Who We Are ACCOUNTABILITY • INTEGRITY • RESPECT • EXCELLENCE • RESPECT • INTEGRITY ACCOUNTABILITY 4 | U.S. POSTAL INSPECTION SERVICE The U.S. Postal Service® backs its mail service with the protection of its own federal law enforcement agency — the U.S. Postal Inspection Service®. We are the primary law enforcement, crime prevention, and security arm of the Postal Service. We provide the investigative and security resources that ensure America’s confidence in the U.S. Mail. It’s our mission: support and protect the Postal Service and its employees, infrastructure, and customers; enforce the laws that defend the nation’s mail system from illegal or dangerous use; and ensure public trust in the mail. We work to assure that American businesses can safely dispatch funds, securities, information, and physical goods through the mail; that postal customers can entrust their correspondence to the mail; and that postal employees can work in a safe environment. Our Postal Inspectors are federal law enforcement officers who carry firearms, make arrests, execute federal search warrants, and serve subpoenas. The 1,289 Inspectors enforce roughly 200 federal laws covering crimes that include fraudulent use of the U.S. Mail and the postal system. Our Security Force of armed, uniformed Postal Police Officers, numbering 581, is assigned to protect critical postal facilities. Our national information technology infrastructure supports users at nearly 200 sites nationwide, and our offices are linked nationally via a private law enforcement network. An additional 586 technical and administrative professionals support the effort USPIS.GOV USPIS.GOV nationwide and at the National Forensic Laboratory. There, a state-of-the-art facility is staffed by highly trained forensic scientists and technical specialists who play a key role in identifying, apprehending, prosecuting, and convicting individuals responsible for postal-related criminal offenses. They provide scientific and technical expertise to the criminal and security investigations of the Postal Inspection Service. Our Postal Inspectors investigate postal-related crimes, such as identity theft, mail bombs, postal robberies, and burglaries. And they protect against the use of the mail to launder drug money, defraud customers, traffic in illegal drugs, and exploit children. The security part of the mission means ensuring postal employees, customers, and some 32,000 postal facilities are safe from criminal attack. Whether dealing with mail thieves in colonial times, stagecoach robbers in the 1800s, gangsters in the 1930s, the Unabomber in the 1980s and ’90s, anthrax mailings in 2001, or illegal opioid shipments today — Postal Inspectors are there. If it has anything to do with preserving the safety, security, and integrity of the nation’s mail system from criminal misuse, we do it. And we’ve been doing it successfully since our inception 244 years ago, on August 7, 1775. ANNUAL REPORT 2019 | 5 Message From the Chief “Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty to those for whom you work, and persistence.” Those words were spoken by Colin Powell, retired 4-Star General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State under George Bush. Hard work and persistence. For any organization to remain relevant and dynamic, it must channel that hard work and persistence toward achieving excellence, keeping up with and embracing change, adapting to new challenges, and overcoming obstacles. We’ve done just that through the years, and none more so than this past year. The men and women of the United States Postal Inspection Service exemplify the values of hard work and persistence, and I am proud to recognize their accomplishments in this Annual Report of Investigations under my first year of stewardship. This report focuses on the efforts of Postal Inspection Service employees in their commitment to provide a safe and secure mail system for the American public. It records and recognizes their successes, and it serves as a blueprint forward. As the Postal Service continues to adapt to a changing landscape, the core of our mission remains the same: protect the Postal Service, its employees and customers, and enforce the laws that defend the nation’s mail system from illegal or dangerous use. And, as the Postal Service has changed, our approach ACCOUNTABILITY • INTEGRITY • RESPECT • EXCELLENCE • RESPECT • INTEGRITY ACCOUNTABILITY to our mission has evolved throughout the years. Crucial to our success is investing in our future, particularly our employees. This year, we set goals toward training, modernizing our processes, and recruiting the best, as well as Gary Barksdale Chief Postal Inspector 6 | U.S. POSTAL INSPECTION SERVICE developing employees for leadership positions and in personal consumer education programs help to make it more difficult development. for these postal crimes to victimize the American public. Investing in equipment and technology is a second key to As the Postal Service expands not only its physical products, success. We have done this by assessing and procuring the but also its digital services and online presence, new latest and best equipment and technology. Surveillance investigative fronts have opened up in the digital world. equipment and drug detection technology have enhanced our We have and continue to work side-by-side with our postal ability to play a key role in combatting the influx of opioids into partners to develop a better awareness and understanding our country. This effort has dovetailed into a third approach: of the Postal Service’s digital products and potential investing in partnerships. vulnerabilities at the hands of hackers. Investigating these cyber threats is another area that requires “hard work and We continue to collaborate with our many federal partners persistence.” to ensure a safe and secure mail system and, in particular, to address the nation’s opioid crisis. To that end, I have worked FY 2019 also saw the sunset of one of our most successful with the White House’s National Drug Control Policy’s Director and proactive crime prevention programs ever. The and Customs and Border Protection’s Commissioner as we Inspectors, our Emmy Award-winning TV show, finished its traveled to China to address synthetic opioid and fentanyl fourth and final season, having drawn more than 232 million trafficking and have met twice with President Trump to viewers over the four-year period. Seasons one and two are discuss strategies toward disrupting the flow of these and now in syndication on the BYU Network. other dangerous drugs. Building these new partnerships and cultivating existing relationships is a key component to our Our social media and consumer awareness initiatives success. continue, including partnerships with AARP and “Operation USPIS.GOV Protect Veterans” (OPV), a national campaign to inform the Inspection Service investigative priorities continue to place public of scams that directly target members of the military. the protection of postal employees at the top level. We This year, we distributed OPV fliers in both English and aggressively investigate violent crimes and partner with the Spanish to thousands of public libraries and senior centers. Postal Service to provide prevention-oriented programs to educate employees on how to protect themselves on the Colin Powell had these final words on success: “There are no street and in active shooter situations. secrets to success: don’t waste time looking for them.” We will stick to hard work and persistence. Just like the Postal Drugs in the mail continue to require an oversize commitment Service, we plan to keep on delivering. Our quality results in resources. During the reporting period, we made 2,562 will continue to help ensure trust in the Postal Service brand arrests involving drug trafficking and seized more than 75 tons and security in America’s postal system. of illegal narcotics and nearly $25 million in drug proceeds. Gary Barksdale Traditional “core” investigative programs — mail theft and mail fraud — require relentless detective work to track down mail thieves and fraudsters. In addition, our prevention and ANNUAL REPORT 2019 | 7 MEET OUR LEADERS Robert B. Wemyss Sandra L. Spector Jeannine Graham Deputy Chief Inspector Inspector in Charge Director Western Field Operations Office of Counsel Business Operations ACCOUNTABILITY • INTEGRITY • RESPECT • EXCELLENCE • RESPECT • INTEGRITY ACCOUNTABILITY 8 | U.S. POSTAL INSPECTION SERVICE USPIS.GOV USPIS.GOV David G. Bowers Maria L. Kelokates Antonio Gomez Deputy Chief Inspector Deputy Chief Inspector Acting Deputy Chief Inspector Strategic Initiatives Eastern Field Operations Headquarters Operations The Executive Committee